The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Ephphatha Parish of the Deaf
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY
Our first reading today is from the book of Jonah. This is probably one of
the books of the Bible that most people remember best, because of the exciting
story of Jonah and the big fish. And so, today I am going to talk about Jonah
and the book that is named for him.
Most people are surprised to hear that the book of Jonah is not really part
of the original Scripture. It is part of the Bible which the Jews call "The
Writings," which help us to understand God's word, but are not themselves part
of God's Law. God's Law is in the first five books of the Bible, which the Jews
call Torah, a Hebrew word that means Teachings. The
Old Testament, which is of course the Jewish Bible, is made up of several parts:
Torah, sometimes called the Pentateuch, the Five
Books of Moses, which are the first five books in the Bible; then come the
Historical Books that tell us about the history of the Jewish people,
and then come the books of the Prophets. Finally, there are the
Writings, the books that don't really fit in anywhere else. Jonah is
one of the most important of these books.
The book of Jonah is what the rabbis call a midrash. A
midrash is a re-telling of important teachings or parts of the Law of
God in the form of a story. To help us understand what Jonah is supposed to
teach us, it helps to know the history behind the writing of this story.
You might remember that after the Jewish people were taken to Babylon as
slaves, they were later given permission by the king there to return to Israel.
Nehemiah, who was a servant in the king's palace, was given permission to
rebuild the Temple and the walls of the city of Jerusalem, and the king even
gave him money and letters of introduction to the army that had occupied Israel,
telling the officers to give Nehemiah whatever he needed to do the rebuilding of
the walls and the Temple. The king also asked that when the Temple was rebuilt,
Nehemiah would offer a sacrifice for the blessings of God on the king of
Babylon. And the king returned to Nehemiah all the gold and silver worship
equipment that had been taken from the Temple when Jerusalem had been destroyed
40 years ago.
So, Nehemiah and Ezra, who was an elderly priest of the Temple, led a group
of Jewish people back to Israel from Babylon, which is more or less part of
nowadays Iraq and Iran. They got there, and started the work of rebuilding, but
had a lot of problems because the army didn't really want to help them, and put
many obstacles in their way. You can read the whole story if you like, in the
books of Nehemiah and Ezra in your Bible.
When the walls and the Temple were rebuilt, Ezra called the people together
in the square in front of the Temple. Most of them had grown up or been born
during the 40 years in Babylon and did not remember, or even know about, God's
Law. So Ezra read the Law of God to them, all day, and the people were greatly
moved to hear it. Then they celebrated the rededication of the Temple. And after
that, Ezra insisted that the people must begin to keep God's Law strictly. This
meant that foreign people who had married Jews must be divorced and sent back to
their homes, along with any children of those marriages, because the Law did not
permit mixed marriages.
The book of Jonah was written to point out how cruel this was to the foreign
wives and children who had come back to Israel with their Jewish husbands and
fathers. They were being sent home without any resources or anyone to protect
them on the way. And so the author of the Book of Jonah wrote the story we all
know so well. The point of the story, you see, is that Jonah did not want to
help God save people whom he hated. But God insisted that Jonah go and preach to
them, so that they would have an opportunity to repent and be saved. This
midrash is showing us that God loves everybody, even if they are not Jews, even
if they don't keep God's laws perfectly, even if they are people we hate and
can't get along with.
Children in Sunday School always want to know: did the story of Jonah really,
truly happen? And the answer is, no. It's just a story to help us understand
that God loves everyone and cares about everyone...not just the Jews, not just
the people of our church or our community or our race or our language. It is
hard for us to accept that, because we want to believe that God only loves
people just like ourselves, but the truth is that God loves everyone. We are all
God's children, no matter what color or race or religion we are. God does not
love everything we do, of course. He makes a difference between a person and
what that person does. He loves the person but expects us to repent of our sins
and wrong doings. One of the prayers we say in Lent begins, O God, who
desires not the death of a sinner, but that all sinners will look unto you and
be saved..... That's the idea behind Jonah.
And what does it mean for us today? It means that we have to try to help and
provide the needs of life for everyone...welfare moms and their kids, people in
prison, people living together without marriage, street folks, people who abuse
alcohol or other substances, people suffering from terrible illnesses and
medical conditions, immigrants, people of all different races and religions and
cultures, the unemployed, the retarded, you name it. All these people are
important and precious to God, and beloved by him. They are as much his children
as we church-goers are. And so we have a responsibility to see that they have
what they need, just as we see that our own families and neighbors have what
they need to live.
Another thing: Jonah was sent to preach to the people of Nineveh, so that
they could repent. And they did repent, and were saved. Jesus came to preach the
gospel to the people of Israel and Judah, and he preached, also, that they must
repent and be saved. We often forget that Jesus preached a different gospel than
the one we preach today. Today, we preach the gospel that tells how Jesus' death
on the cross takes away our sins and our eternal death, and admits us to heaven.
But Jesus could not preach that, because he had not yet died and risen to life
again. Jesus preached that God's Kingdom was coming among the people NOW and
that they had to reprent their wrongdoings and become part of that Kingdom of
God. That is still true now...and we become part of the Kingdom of God by
repenting, of course, and also by sharing in God's love for all of God's
creation, including the people he has made, as well as the environment. We do
that by helping and caring for the needs of others...as God made clear to Jonah
in the story.
What do YOU need to repent? What people do YOU have to help provide for? What
people do YOU dislike, forgetting that they are beloved children of God? What
are YOU going to do about all this? You can't ignore it or turn away from it,
you know. Remember what happened to Jonah when he tried to ignore and turn away
from the responsibility God gave him....the same responsibility that God gives
each of us, today. Amen.
